In late July, Canada’s top military officer unveiled a hard-hitting plan to crack down on sexual misconduct in the ranks.

But it didn’t take long for some in uniform to coin a new phrase for Gen. Jon Vance’s Operation Honour, which aims to send a tough message to those who engage in sexual harassment, assault or other inappropriate behaviour.

Some recruits at the Royal Military College, as well as other Canadian Forces personnel including individuals at National Defence headquarters in Ottawa, dubbed Op Honour as “Hop On Her” — a play on words suggesting sexual aggression or even assault.

Military officers acknowledged to the Citizen having heard such terminology, although they couldn’t say how widespread use of the phrase has been.

These matters do not call for levity

But it, and the shift into another job of Lt.-Gen. Christine Whitecross, who headed a special team to deal with misconduct, raise questions about how well the military is doing in the war on internal sexual misconduct, according to critics.

Canadian Forces spokesman Capt. Jean-François Lambert emphasized that the crude rephrasing of Operation Honour is unacceptable and not condoned. “These matters do not call for levity,” he said in an email. “This type of behaviour is one of the many reasons (Vance) has implemented Operation Honour.”

“We expect all (military) members to have the maturity to take this issue seriously.”

Lambert said the military believes it has made significant progress dealing with sexual misconduct but “we cannot expect to change culture overnight.’

But Ottawa lawyer Michel Drapeau, who has also heard about the “Hop on Her” phrase being used at the Royal Military College in Kingston, questioned how much progress has actually been made.

“When you have some people openly making fun of Vance, then what does that tell you?” said Drapeau. He represents a number of military personnel whose sexual assault and harassment cases helped to prompt a report on the matter earlier this year by former Supreme Court Justice Marie Deschamps. “It’s pretty sick that there are still those in the military who see all this as a joke.”

In her report, Deschamps raised warnings about a “sexualized culture” that subjected women in uniform to abuse ranging from sexual jokes and harassment to rape. Her report, released April 30, also concluded that not only was sexual misconduct “endemic” in the Canadian Forces, it was accepted by the military leadership.

To deal with the Deschamps report, the military appointed Whitecross to head a special team to deal with misconduct.

But Whitecross has now been replaced as head of the Strategic Response Team on Sexual Misconduct by Rear Admiral Jennifer Bennett.

Bennett, previously in charge of reserves and military cadets, took over on Sept. 28 and will still report to Whitecross, who is now in charge of the military personnel command.

Drapeau questioned why Whitecross, who became the face of the military’s response to the Deschamps report, is leaving after such a short time in the job. “If you’re going to have an effective response, you need continuity and someone who will stay the course,” he said.

Whitecross visited 13 military bases and installations across the country to hear directly about sexual misconduct.

She also travelled to the U.S., France, Australia, Sweden, Belgium, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Denmark to hear from other militaries and meet with officials about sexual misconduct.

In response to Drapeau’s concerns, Lambert said “the overall effort against sexual misconduct is led by the Chief of the Defence Staff.”

He said Whitecross remains fully committed to the response team, and having both Whitecross and Bennett involved further enhances the military’s response.

Bennett has served for 40 years as a reservist and has been a teacher and education administrator, he added.

There have been concerns about how serious the military is on the issue of sexual abuse. Then-chief of the defence staff Tom Lawson, who has since retired, came under fire in June for his claim that sexual harassment was still an issue in the Canadian Forces because people were “biologically wired in a certain way.”

His comment, made in a CBC interview, sparked widespread outrage and Lawson apologized.

The Royal Military College was also in the headlines earlier this year after it emerged that a guest speaker on sexual misconduct was belittled and harassed as she tried to conduct a seminar. The general in charge of the college eventually apologized for what was acknowledged as “unprofessional behaviour.”

Lawson’s successor, Vance, has said dealing with the sexual misconduct issue is a priority for him.

“As my first order to the Canadian Armed Forces, everybody must continue to work together to eliminate this harmful behaviour,” Vance said when assuming the job. “It must stop now.”

During her year-long investigation into sexual misconduct, Deschamps interviewed hundreds of full- and part-time military personnel, as well as commanding officers, military police, chaplains, nurses and social workers.

The military’s leadership came under particularly harsh criticism. Deschamps found military personnel “became inured to this sexualized culture as they move up the ranks,” with officers turning a blind eye to inappropriate conduct and senior non-commissioned officers “imposing a culture where no one speaks up.”

“Underlying all these concerns is a deep mistrust that the chain of command will take such complaints seriously,” her report noted.

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